By Kim Hyelin
Photos = Yonhap News

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Jan. 4 speaks during the announcement of the Ministry of Economy and Finance's New Year's plan held as a forum with the public at the K-biz Training Center in Yongin, Gyeonggi-do Province. The economy in the first quarter of 2024 grew 1.3%, the highest in two years and three months, and last year, the employment rate reached a record high of 62.6% and that of unemployment a record low of 2.7%.

President Yoon on Dec. 7, 2023, tastes bungeoppang, or a fish-shaped pastry with sweet red bean paste filling, made by the National Cafe Owner Cooperative at the Snow Flower K-shopping Festa at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul's Jung-gu District. There, he said, "Small and medium enterprises, small businesses and the self-employed are the backbone of our economy and national security" and "key targets of economic and social policies." 

His administration in December 2022 launched the delivery payment linkage system and created a more friendly environment for small businesses and the self-employed by allowing such businesses with low- to middle-grade credit to repay high-interest loans of 7% or more through low-interest policy funds with 4.5% interest from this year. 

President Yoon on May 3 pins a carnation on a senior citizen at a Parents' Day ceremony held at Jangchung Arena in Seoul's Jung-gu District. He was the first sitting head of state to attend the event. This year, his administration raised the living subsidy for low-income earners by a record 13.2%, expanded the number of jobs for elderly people from 883,000 last year to a record 1.03 million and raised their job benefits for the first time in six years. 

President Yoon on Dec. 26, 2023, holds hands with children while touring the exhibition hall of the National Children's Museum during the latter's opening ceremony at the National Museum Complex of Korea in Sejong. To tackle the low birth rate, his administration abolished income criteria for supporting infertility treatment and raised parental benefits from KRW 700,000 to KRW 1 million per newborn.

President Yoon on April 9 speaks at a meeting on reviewing semiconductor issues at the Office of the President in Seoul's Yongsan-gu District. His administration devised a mission-oriented strategic roadmap for 12 national strategic technologies and picked 10 national strategic technology projects, preparing the basis to foster the future technologies of artificial intelligence and semiconductors, advanced biotechnology and quantum science.

President Yoon on March 13 places his hands on a metal globe as part of a performance at the launching ceremony for a new national cluster for the space industry at Korea Aerospace Industries in Sacheon, Gyeongsangnam-do Province. There, he pledged to expand the space development budget to over KRW 1.5 trillion by 2027. 

In late December 2022, the country launched into orbit its first lunar orbiter Danuri and conducted the third launch of its first domestically developed launch vehicle Nuri on May 25, 2023. The Korea Aerospace Administration will be opened on May 27 this year in Sacheon.

President Yoon (left) on Aug. 18, 2023, at the U.S. presidential retreat of Camp David, Maryland, poses for a photo with U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ahead of the inaugural trilateral summit among their three countries. The leaders agreed to hold such talks regularly and set up a real-time system to share information on North Korea's missiles. 

In March that year, Seoul held a bilateral summit with Tokyo and one with Washington a month later to normalize ties with Japan and visualize a global comprehensive strategic alliance with the U.S.

President Yoon on March 18 applauds at the opening ceremony for the ministerial meeting of the third Summit for Democracy at the hotel Shilla Seoul. Korea has promoted freedom, peace and prosperity in the international community through efforts like membership on the United Nations Security Council and support for Ukraine. 

The nation also expanded its global diplomatic network with Pacific Island and African countries, established formal relations with Cuba, and spread diplomacy befitting its status as a global pivotal country by allocating a record KRW 6.26 trillion (USD 6.1 billion) in official development assistance this year.

President Yoon on June 5, 2023, delivers a speech at the launching ceremony for the Overseas Koreans Agency at Booyong Songdo Tower in Incheon's Yeonsu-gu District. His administration launched the agency, the country's first of its kind, complete with a counseling service running around the clock and year-round in five languages for ethnic Koreans from abroad.

President Yoon on June 14, 2023, takes a photo with Son Hee-won (2nd from left), Kim Chang-seok and Lee Ha-young, directors of the Korean War Veterans Association whom he dressed in "hero uniforms," at a luncheon for veterans and their families at Yeongbingwan, the state guesthouse of the former presidential compound of Cheong Wa Dae. The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs on June 5, 2023, was upgraded to ministry status and raised veterans' compensation 5.5% that year, the largest hike since 2008.

kimhyelin211@korea.kr